Alford a



(No Model.)

A. A. BUTLER.

INDEXING BOOKS. No 306,318. Patented Oct. '7, 1884.

- WITNESSES" l/VVENTQR WM fizw. M7; Alzzorney' NITED STATES ALFORD A. BUTLER, or BAY OITY,1VIIOHIGAN, nssrenon TO CHARLES H. DENISON, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

INDEXING BOOKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 306,318, dated October '7, 1884.

Application filed October 19,- 1883. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFORD A. BUTLER. a citizen of theUnited States, residing at Bay City, in the county of Bay and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Indexing Books, which is applicable to dictionaries, encyclopedias, digests, concordances, directories, and all books alphabetically arranged,to ledgcrs and blank books, also to the Bible, and all works divided into chapters, or comprising different subjects, of which the following is a specification.

In indexing books in accordance with my invention segmental recesses are cut obliquely into the edges of the leaves of the book adjacent to the page bearing the matter to be indicated in such manner as to expose to view a small portion of said page, and then within said recesses, and on the edges of the leaves forming the oblique wall thereof,is printed the letter, figure, word, or character intended to serve as a reference to the matter on said page. The said reference character may also be placed on the exposed leaf-surface forming the other wall of said recess. This is repeated for each letter or subject comprised in the book, and the letters or characters, placed as above described, are visible when the book is closed as well as when it is open. The recesses may be cut in either direction; but the best results are obtained, as will be presently seen, by cutting from the middle of the book toward the two covers. In books of ordinary size the recesses should be cut in two series, as in the drawing; but in books of considerable length, as blank books, the segments may be arranged in a single series, changing the direction of the cuttings at the middle of the book. The best method, however, is to place the segments in two series in single volumes, and duplicating this arrangement in volumes comprising two or more books.

The indexcharacters may be printed on the oblique wall of the cutting, either when the book is closed or when it is open; but the former is deemed the better method, as in that case the characters will be of normal size when the book is closed, and expanded when the book is open, and the leaves consequently spread, but will be easily legible in either position; but if the characters are printed,when the book lies open they will be contracted to dimensions and proportions neither symmetrical nor easily legible when the book is closed. Whether, however, they are printed in one way or the other, when the book lies open they are legible whether the body of leaves comprising a given cutting are turned to the right or left, and so can be seen even when the leaves are so disposed as to conceal the characters printed or written on the opposite or leaf-surface wall of the cutting.

The accompanying drawing represents a book closed and another open, the former showing the index-characters as they appear when the leaves are in their normal position, and the latter as they appear when expanded by the spread of the leaves.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent is A book having segmental recesses cut sub stantially in the manner described in the fore going specification, with the appropriate letter, figure, or character placed withinthe recess on the edges of the leaves forming the oblique wall thereof, substantially as and for the purpose described.

ALFORD A. BUTLER.

lVitnesses:

FREDERICK P. BROWNE, JNo. DIULHOLLAND. 

